The satellite broadcaster, one of the nation's biggest pay-TV distributors with over 20 million subscribers, stopped carrying the Weather Channel as of midnight eastern standard time after the two companies couldn't come to terms on a new distribution deal.

"We offered DirecTV the best rate for our programming, and I'm shocked they have put corporate profits ahead of keeping a trusted channel that subscribers rely on every day," said Weather Channel Chief Executive David Kenny. "We are not looking for a large fee increase."

Last week, the Weather Channel encouraged its viewers to contact their member of Congress and senators to complain about DirecTV's expected dropping of the channel.

"Given the increasing frequency and severity of weather-related emergencies across the country, access to timely and accurate weather information is imperative for public safety and, therefore, an issue meriting congressional attention," the network said.

"Consumers understand there are now a variety of other ways to get weather coverage free of reality show clutter, and that the Weather Channel does not have an exclusive on weather coverage – the weather belongs to everyone," said Dan York, DirecTV's chief content officer

The Weather Channel has indicated it is only seeking an increase of a penny per-subscriber, per-month.

A DirecTV spokesman said the new contract being sought by the Weather Channel is "substantially more than that."

According to industry consulting firm SNL Kagan, the average fee for the Weather Channel is 13 cents per-subscriber, per-month. However, since DirecTV is such a large distributor, its rate is actually lower than that.

DirecTV also said that its subscribers are concerned about the amount of non-weather programs on the network. Over the last few years, as part of an effort to broaden its audience, the Weather Channel has started to program reality shows about weather-related professions.

"Given the increasing frequency and severity of weather-related emergencies across the country, access to timely and accurate weather information is imperative for public safety and, therefore, an issue meriting congressional attention," the network said.

"We have heard from an overwhelming majority of our customers that they want a weather service that's 24/7, not one that's preempted by reality programming 40% of the time," DirecTV has said.

In anticipation of dropping the network, DirecTV recently added WeatherNation, a smaller network that also caters to weather enthusiasts but lacks the audience or stature of the Weather Channel. It now occupies the slot that had been home to the Weather Channel.

"They are trading safety for increased profits and replacing the experience and expertise of the Weather Channel with a cheap startup that does weather forecasting on a three-hour taped loop, has no field coverage, no weather experts ... and no experience in severe weather emergencies," Kenny said of DirecTV's decision to carry WeatherNation.

DirecTV has previously noted that besides WeatherNation, it also carries 1,600 local TV stations, most of which carry local news and weather coverage and that it also has its own emergency channels.

The dispute between Weather Channel and DirecTV has encouraged another weather company -- AccuWeather -- to unveil its own plans to launch a channel. AccuWeather, which provides forecasts for TV, radio, newspapers and digital platforms, said its channel will debut in the third quarter of this year.

Such feuds between programmers and distributors have become commonplace. DirecTV has already said it is raising rates this year in part because of increased programming costs. Many networks, especially those that have lots of sports, are charging distributors more to carry their channels. That has led many distributors to get more aggressive with other networks it feels it can risk losing without too great a backlash from subscribers.

"We would prefer to continue carrying Weather Channel, but only at a value that makes sense for DirecTV customers," DirecTV said.

Re: DirecTV drops Weather Channel.

americangame wrote:

I know we sometimes rag on Hallmark Channel having low ratings for what it is but I don't think I can ever recall Weather Channel being on the cable list ever while we know Hallmark has made it on there a few times.

Agreed. TWC is a channel, I would expect to see on every cable system, however. One of the bad things is that they have gotten away from their core purpose, talking about the weather. That being said, many must still watch it as they sure do attract lots of National advertising.

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Re: DirecTV drops Weather Channel.

CostaMesaGuy -- This has been around for a few months now. Be glad you didn't notice it when it had issues when a show was previously recorded from that channel, even if the show was recorded before the feature was implemented.

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Re: DirecTV drops Weather Channel.

[ Edited ]

baseballisback wrote:CostaMesaGuy -- This has been around for a few months now. Be glad you didn't notice it when it had issues when a show was previously recorded from that channel, even if the show was recorded before the feature was implemented.

Sorry I didn't hear about that sooner. When I come here, I mostly look for threads annoucning any new addtions to U-verse, as well as who's dropping what. As you can tell, I only decided to flip to The Weather Channel after I posted this thread, being thankful we're not like DirecTV.

Must have been a lot of hiccups at first when that feature was added. Sounds like I didn't miss anything.

Re: DirecTV drops Weather Channel.

Interesting article here about the direction the TWC. Seems like DTV is a little put off by their reality shows and total lack of weather coverage. Seems that DTV is TWCs largest subscriber base and they didn't like the added expences that TWC was demanding. Maybe if they got back to basics of weather instead of reality shows it wouldn't cost as much to run that network.

” Auto racing, bull fighting, and mountain climbing are the only real sports … all others are games.”- Ernest Hemingway

*The views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.

Re: DirecTV drops Weather Channel.

I remember when the Weather Channel first started showing the radar in the Lot8 segments. I asked some of their people why they didn't always show the radar segment. Their response was that sometimes there's nothing to see on the radar, so they didn't always put it up.

I believe that they didn't get that sometimes that there is nothing on the radar is exactly what you want to see.

This may be their problem now; if there's no active weather going on, they're afraid they won't have anyone tuning to the channel, so they tried to find things to get them more regular viewers. I think they just need to adjust to the fact that their viewership will peak and valley.

*The views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.

Re: DirecTV drops Weather Channel.

[ Edited ]

JefferMC wrote:

I remember when the Weather Channel first started showing the radar in the Lot8 segments. I asked some of their people why they didn't always show the radar segment. Their response was that sometimes there's nothing to see on the radar, so they didn't always put it up.

I believe that they didn't get that sometimes that there is nothing on the radar is exactly what you want to see.

This may be their problem now; if there's no active weather going on, they're afraid they won't have anyone tuning to the channel, so they tried to find things to get them more regular viewers. I think they just need to adjust to the fact that their viewership will peak and valley.

I actually liked the radar on the cable version of LOT8. Only having it every 10 minutes was okay. I used it not for severe weather but rain in the warmer months, to see if I had time to get an activity in or not. The current iteration on 225/1225 is coo, man, coo!

One local station, when severe weather was around, would have a thumbnail size square where they would alternate between a map of warned counties and a smallish radar loop. That was cool.

Even when the weather is mild in my area, I often tune into TWC for National coverage. There are LOTS of weather junkies, in the world. You know that Weather and Adult entertainment are the top two searches on the 'net?

*The views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Weather Channel is returning to DirecTV with a significant compromise that affects all of its viewers: it promises to focus more on the weather.

After a three-month dispute with DirecTV that saw the channel dropped to some 20 million U.S. viewers, the two sides came to a new deal that will restore service on Wednesday.

The biggest change to its programming will affect all Weather Channel viewers, not just DirecTV subscribers. It said it will reduce its reality programming by half on weekdays. That means fewer airings of TV shows like "Coast Guard Alaska" and "Hurricane Hunters."

David Kenny, the CEO of channel parent Weather Company, apologized for the disruption and vowed to reward viewers with more weather-focused news.

Re: The Weather Channel is back on DirectTV.

*The views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.

Re: DirecTV drops Weather Channel.

*The views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.

Re: DirecTV drops Weather Channel.

Read this quote on DSL Reports this morning regarding this issue. Loved it.

"There would appear to be an important lesson here for broadcasters eager to hold pay TV companies hostage over carriage fees: being a hardass in retrans fee negotiations only works if you have a product customers will actually miss."

” Auto racing, bull fighting, and mountain climbing are the only real sports … all others are games.”- Ernest Hemingway